Provenance — Where Does Yoga Asana Come From?

Some Western scholars have contended that modern asana practice is not rooted in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (2nd c. B.C.E.), and that claiming so is a false, self-justifying, claim of provenance. I know the arguments well: only eleven asanas are described in Vyasa’s fifth century commentary on Patanjali (half of which are sitting asanas for meditation), and only twenty-six asanas, mudras, and bandhas are described by Svatmarama (“own-Self-takes delight”) in his 15th century text, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.[1] On the other hand, the Gheranda Samhita, a 17th c. work, describes an additional seven asanas — out of 8.4 million (84 lakhs) asanas![2]

T. Krishnamacharya in Paschimottanasana: Yoga Makaranda, 1934.

Another source text of the Iyengar method of yoga, the Yoga Korunta (14th c. C.E.; now unavailable), was memorized by B.K.S. Iyengar’s guru, T. Krishnamacharya when he studied in Tibet during the 1920’s with his guru, Rama Mohana Brahmacari.[3] It contains the vinyasa sequences that Guruji Iyengar taught from 1935 through the 1970’s and Pattabhi Jois taught until his death in 2009.[4] These are the asanas included in Iyengar’s seminal text, Light on Yoga, or Yoga Dipika in Sanskrit. Krishnamacharya based his approach primarily on the ashtanga yoga systems of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras and the Yoga Yajnavalkya (4th c. C.E.). The latter was a source for later texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which he also honored.[5]

As a dedicated pupil of B.K.S. Iyengar, I believe the provenance of asana is legitimized in three broad ways: First, whereas Western scholarship is a text-driven discipline, yoga practice has relied on the oral tradition to explicate on the few extant texts. Secondly, direct perception of the Self in yoga comes with experience and cannot be cast as “new” or “different.” Third, asana is a physical component of a spiritual practice.

Ashtanga Yoga & Hatha Yoga: Oral vs. Textual Tradition

Provenance — the source of what is being taught — primarily depends on who is teaching. Great masters have had generations of wisdom to back up their means and methods by developing within the guru-sishya (teacher-student) relationship, first as pupils and then as teachers.[6] This is how the oral tradition has survived, with very little ever recorded.[7] The lineage, although entwined in myth, extends back to the time of the sages. Even the texts that do exist have acceded to oral primacy: Hatha Yoga Pradipika cites that asana, pranayama, kriya (purification actions), and mudra (“seals” including Viparita Karani) should be “learned from the guru’s instructions” and “kept secret”:[8]

HYP I.14 One should practice yoga in the way instructed by his guru .
HYP II.1 The yogin, having perfected himself in the asanas, should practice pranayama, according to the instructions of his guru….
HYP III.7-9 These… [ten mudras] expounded by Adinatha… annihilate old age and death… [and] should be kept secret, like a box of precious gems.

According to the Shiva Samhita, “Only the knowledge imparted by a guru, through his lips, is powerful and useful; otherwise it becomes fruitless, weak and very painful.” It describes a guru as “father…, mother, and even God.”[9] But, as Prashant Iyengar has pointed out, “Guru is an institution, not a person. We worship the guru in Guruji Iyengar, not his personality.”[10] Tradition mandates that a sishya can have only one guru in his lifetime. Gurus, like Krishnamacharya, have “jealously guarded… spiritual knowledge… [unless] pupils were deserving enough.”[11]

I believe there are three reasons that the guru-sishya system has allowed yoga to thrive over the millennia :

Prerequisite qualification and commitment of the pupil that ensures responsible and accurate transmission of the oral tradition — why the guru only shares with “deserving” pupils.

A lengthy and intense mentoring process, similar to a professor fostering his doctoral candidates, that emphasizes proper technique, memorization, and correct interpretation. The guidance of a lifetime mentor lessens error or injury, and increases efficacy. For example, medical studies proving the efficacy of yoga have been conducted by highly-trained teachers who are often under the supervision of Guruji Iyengar himself, not an “Internet guru.”

Ethical authority of the guru that is neither corrupted by the attainment of supernormal powers, nor the need to profit from teaching by acquiring more pupils (gurus often have been employed householders).[12]

The guru-sishya system has traditionally been the primary means of preserving the yogic tradition. The widespread accessibility of yogic texts due to the Internet, that were only available from a few publishers in India just a generation ago, has skewed the perception of just how difficult it has been to find these texts in the past.[13] Two hundred years ago they were only available in manuscript form. Moreover, few yogins were literate: in 1800, just after the inception of Indian newspapers, only 3% of Indians were literate in their vernacular language, much less the literary language of the Sanskrit texts. In 1947, at Independence, still only 12% of Indians were literate.[14]

The texts were meant to be memorized and chanted by the students and then explained by the guru. Although the descriptions in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika are brief, they are not as terse as the Yoga Sutras. However, metaphors are often used, or only the results of practice cited. Details of how to practice — the essential actions and individualized instruction — exist only in the oral tradition, handed down from guru to sishya.[15]

Yoga: Creativity vs. Transformation of Consciousness

Accomplished yogins, says B.K.S. Iyengar, view purusha (spirit) as the source of all creativity. Asanas aren’t “inventions” because creativity in yoga does not arise out of an individual’s originality or cleverness:

“Only God creates — not you or me. [Insight] comes like a light, but not from thinking.”[16]

A tenet of Samkhya-Yoga school is “Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed; it only changes state.”[17] That’s why B.K.S. Iyengar contends that he practices yoga — not an “Iyengar method” or an “Iyengar style” of yoga:

“Principles cannot change. There is no new ‘creation,’ or new ‘style,’ or ‘method.’ When jnana [knowledge] comes, the intelligence is not limited by selfishness; otherwise it is a sign of a fluctuating mind.”[18]

The underlying principle of Samkhya philosophy that forms the basis of Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga is that because of its innate purity, buddhi (intelligence), is able to perceive purusha as its source. But if that perception is tainted by ego-driven parigraha (possessiveness), it signifies a non-yogic, and unstable, mind. Thus, yoga is universal and cannot be “owned” or branded by “style.” To sum up, there is nothing “new” in yoga, even if it may be new to you or me. An example of this is when Guruji Iyengar criticized a young teacher for coming up with a “new” way of performing of Adho Mukha Svanasana incorrectly on the fingertips for wrist pain:

“It is a distortion of the Iyengar method. A [junior teacher] can never ‘create.’ Creativity only comes with maturity in rtambhara prajna [“truth-bearing wisdom” attained in samadhi].”[20]

The next example of “originality” — an adaptation by a teacher lacking sufficient training — can even lead to student injury. This himsa (harmfulness), however unintended, violates the teacher’s compact with the student that, like a mother, promotes safety of the pupil above and beyond the safety of the teacher. Students can be put in harm’s way when the guru-sishya system of mentoring is eliminated because junior teachers need to be mentored for many years. That way students taught by junior teachers benefit, if indirectly, from the experience of the guru.[21] Here Guruji Iyengar criticized a teacher for her modification of Supta Padangusthasana:

“Do not [teach] adaptations that have no bearing on the pose because it is [merely] physical yoga — which causes strains and pains.”[22]

Only when the aforementioned rtambhara prajna, “truth-bearing wisdom” or “mature wisdom accompanied by intense insight,” has been experienced — in other words, in samadhi — can the yoga cannon of the sages be modified. Not only is this type of knowledge “beyond the knowledge gleaned from books, testimony or inference” — it stops the very production of the chittavrttis (mental fluctuations) themselves, which is Patanjali’s definition of yoga:[23]

Raja Yoga vs. Hatha Yoga: Spiritual vs. Physical?

Why practice? Both East and West have acclaimed yoga as “good for health” and many have begun practice for that reason, as did Guruji Iyengar. Besides the more common belief in the West that asana is good for health, there is a less widely held Indian belief — that asana is part of a non-denominational yogic spiritual practice.[24] Both in Patanjali’s classical dualist yoga, and in the non-dualist philosophy that has come to dominate Indian thought, health and spirituality only differ by degree on the body-mind-intellect continuum.[25] Moreover, Indian thought considers every action to have long-term spiritual implications.

One of the facets of yoga that links both health and spirituality is the ethical precept of a-himsa (non-violence). What characterizes asana as “safe” — resulting in less “wear and tear” — is ahimsa; what defines yoga as “spiritual” also begins with ahimsa — acting with such integrity that it both prevents future suffering, and causes others to abandon hostility, according to Patanjali:

PYS II.34-35 …himsa [violence]… results in endless duhkha [pain] and ajnana [ignorance]. Pratipaksha bhavanam [cultivating the opposite behavior] ends duhkha and ajnana. When the yogin is firmly established in ahimsa [non-violence] there is abandonment of hostility in his presence.

Hatha Yoga, where asana, pranayama, mudra, and bandha are described, claims its theistic heritage from the outset. The very first verse of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika praises Lord Shiva, the first guru, who, in teaching his consort Parvati hatha yoga, passed on his spiritual knowledge:

HYP I.1 Salutation to Adinatha [Shiva] who taught [his consort Parvati] the vidya (knowledge) of hatha yoga, which, like a staircase, leads the aspirant to the high pinnacle of raja yoga.

Despite affirming this lineage in the next verse, Svatmarama rarely refers to Shiva again, except as a physiological metaphor, and as the guru who taught asana and mudra.[26] More significantly, he reiterates that practice of hatha yoga is “solely for the attainment of raja (royal) yoga,” a synonym for Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga, thus tying hatha yoga to a universal, non-denominational, spiritual practice:

This bond with raja yoga is reaffirmed at subsequent points in the text:

HYP I.67 The asanas, various kumbhakas [retentions in pranayama], and other divine karanas [means] of hatha yoga, should all be practiced until the fruit of raja yoga is obtained.

In the last set of verses it is reiterated with an additional metaphoric reference to overcoming death:

HYP 1V.103 All the methods of hatha are meant for gaining success in raja yoga. The person, who is well-established in the raja yoga, overcomes death.[27]

There are similarities between the Yoga Sutras and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Like raja yoga, the fundamental objective of hatha yoga is “to transcend the egoic consciousness, and to realize the Self….” wrote Georg Feuerstein.[28] Direct perception of the Self is the result of body, mind, and breath purification in yoga. Svatmarama’s sloka (two-line verse) on asana borrows the term sthira [firm, stable] directly from Patanjali’s definition of asana:

According to Brahmananda’s 1880 C.E. commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Jyotsna, asana explicitly stabilizes the mind, whereas Patanjali’s terse two-word definition of asana does not explicitly differentiate among body, mind, and intellect in bringing about vrtti nirodha (movement-cessation).[29] Brahmananda even quotes Patanjali’s obstacles, which Guruji Iyengar characterizes as “physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual:”[30]

BJ I.17 Asana [gives] sthairyam [firmness, stability]… because it kills the rajo-guna that causes fickleness [unsteadiness] of manas [mind]. By removing diseases, it facilitates concentration; for Patanjali says: [quotes PYS I.30: disease, inertia, doubt, carelessness, laziness, incontinence, mistaken notion, and backsliding due to pride cause the chitta vikshepas, distractions of the mind, and are the obstacles.] Asana removes the heaviness of body arising from the preponderance of tamas….

Or, as B.K.S. Iyengar has summarized Brahmananda’s commentary:

“Health is eradication of the diseases that cause the chitta vikshepas [mental distractions that divert one from the path of yoga].”[31]

Despite the spiritual dimension of asana practice, some have denigrated asana as solely “physical.” Even the great nineteenth-century non-dualist Swami Vivekananda held conflicting views about the validity of asana practice when it was not as popular as it is today. He outrightly dismissed asana, equating it with hatha yoga in his introduction to his popular 1896 publication, Raja Yoga, because the aim of hatha yoga is purportedly only

“physical strength… and not spiritual growth. Health [resulting in long life] is the one goal of the hatha yogi.”[32]

His rejection could have been influenced by legitimate contemporary ethical assumptions, as well as sectarianism.[33] Nonetheless, elsewhere in his same text, he conceded a body-mind connection:

“The mind is intimately connected with the body…. If the body is sick, the mind becomes sick also. If the body is healthy, the mind remains healthy and strong.”[34]

BKS Iyengar in Siddhasana: Light on Yoga, 1966

In light of this, it is hard to reconcile his dismissal of asana with his appreciation of how a healthy mind requires a healthy body. Moreover, if he could extol Shankaracharya’s recommendation of nadi (channel) purification through nadi sodhana pranayama,[35] it would be inconsistent to not then advocate nadi purification in asana, such as Siddhasana — which is specifically cited in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika:

HYP I.39 Out of the 84 asanas Siddhasana should always be practiced, because it cleanses the impurities of 72,000 nadis [nadinam mala-sodhanam].

Asana is also cited to benefit the nadis in a general sense:

HYP III.124 This middle [susumna] nadi becomes straight and firm by steady practice of asana, pranayama, and mudra of the yogin.

Vivekananda’s lack of advocacy is especially inconsistent because there is a photo of him meditating in Siddhasana, dated 1886, in his biography! Moreover, experience tells us that judicious practice of all the various types of asanas and pranayamas is necessary to afford sufficient mobility of the hips and stability of the spine to be able to sit erect and motionless in Swastikasana with a steady mind for an extended period of time.

Ironically, when Vivekananda commented specifically on Yoga Sutra II.46 that defines asana in Raja Yoga, he repeated the intent of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika I.17 — firmness and health:

“When you have succeeded controlling the body and keeping it firm, your practice [ed. italics] will be steady; but while you are disturbed by the body, your nerves become disturbed, and you cannot concentrate the mind.”[36]

There is no doubt that a firm body steadies meditation. Guruji Iyengar takes the same basic approach as Vivekananda, but is more specific in his analysis. In his interpretation of PYS II.46, applying “stable” to the mind as well as the body, he describes the intelligence as steadied, not the practice; steadiness in practice is only inferred. It refers back to the stabilization of chitta (consciousness) that Patanjali uses to define yoga, and Vyasa’s description of that happening chitta is freed of the gunas (qualities of nature).[37] Guruji Iyengar’s interpretation concurs with BJ I.17, which makes it clear that not only does asana stabilize the body, but also steadies the manas (mind) — because it “kills the rajo-guna (movement-quality) that causes fickleness of the manas (mind).”[38] It also affirms Vyasa’s commentary on PYS II.47, which cites perfection in asana to prevent angam-ejayatva (limb-shakiness) — an obstacle to samadhi. Although shakiness ostensibly refers to the body, Guruji Iyengar also applies it to mental instability — which includes depression.[39]

Patanjali, as does Svatmarama, begins yoga practice with the ethical precepts of yama and the disciplines of niyama.[41] According to B.K.S. Iyengar, the yamas, beginning with a-himsa (non-violence) spring from the intrinsic purity of one’s conscience. But chitta (consciousness) becomes tainted by contact with society.[42] As noted in the discussion about himsa (violence), when chitta has been tainted by violent thoughts and deeds , it causes endless pain and ignorance. To maintain and cultivate innate purity, the Yoga Sutras cite the yamas as “universal vows unconditioned by class, time, or place.”[43] When it comes to yama, hatha yoga, too, does not differentiate amongst “thought, word, and deed”[44] — and that applies to the practice of asana, pranayama, mudra, and bandha.

As a result, any emphasis on physicality alone that ignores the role of the mind is decidedly unholistic: it reflects a Western interpretation that ignores the precepts of yama and niyama that lead to the inner peace lying at the very heart and soul of yoga. Some Westerners have claimed that aggressive Western calisthenics were modified and incorporated into asana practice to “toughen up” passive Indians as part of the twentieth-century Indian independence movement.[45] The phrase “toughen up” itself conveys a duality that comes from a lack of awareness. It is impossible to “toughen up” your conscience. Besides, it is presumptuous to assume that political success depends mainly upon individual physical prowess. No less than Mahatma Gandhi himself, the father of Indian independence, based his mass movement on the first two yamas — ahimsa (non-violence) and satya (truthfulness).[46]

Within the concept of “alignment” in asana, B.K.S. Iyengar has taught the difficult-to-put-into-practice philosophy of samatvam (eveness of mind), prana (life-force), prajna (wisdom), as well as yama (ethics) and niyama (discipline). Here, alignment has been used to clarify the intelligence and foster ahimsa:

BKS Iyengar teaches how to purge the wrist of violence in Utthita Hasta Padasana: The Dalai Lama Speaks – Paths To Happiness. 11-20-2010

“Purging the mind [of aggression] begins by aligning the wrist in Utthita Hasta Padasana…. The left dorsal wrist is bulging, higher than her fingers… because of himsa, aggression, in the body…. Lacking sarira prajna [bodily understanding], she is only following the dictates of the body.[47] She is not using her body as an agent to clarify her intelligence. To remove the aggression, descend the left top wrist, lift the fingers and then stretch the arm and hand. That is a-himsa [non-violence].”[48]

The focus of Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga has always been to destroy the impurities that obscure the highest state of awareness.[49] As part of that goal, the mastery of asana leads to the cessation of duality.[50] In the following demonstration, B.K.S. Iyengar has shown how to practice asana to bring about saucha (purity) and santosha (contentment), the first two niyamas:

BKS Iyengar adjusts left armpit chest in Trikonasana to bring purity to the right armpit chest: The Dalai Lama Speaks – Paths To Happiness. 11-20-2010

“The projection of the student’s left armpit chest in Utthita Hasta Padasana fostered saucha, purity, because it allowed the blood to flow — like ‘taking a bath.’ [By contrast, because the student’s right side of the chest faced the floor, the lack of blood flow was taken to be] a sign of a-saucha, impurity, because it remained ‘unbathed.’ [After Guruji Iyengar rotated the student’s right armpit chest forward and up] to bring saucha, the right chest achieved santosha, contentment, [and was then able to proclaim], ‘Now I am happy here,’ because the right chest, as well as the left, has been ‘bathed’ with oxygenated blood.”[51]

Similarly, focusing attention on a particular area of the body in asana practice is dharana, concentration; maintaining and spreading that awareness in an unbroken flow evolves into dhyana, meditation.[52] However, any non-holistic approach automatically conflates the step-by-step process of learning physical postures with an exclusive emphasis on physicality itself — as expressed in the maxim, “by the body for the body.” But physical practice is a beginning, not an end. Whereas we may view knowledge of the body as both sophisticated and subtle, yogins consider it gross when compared to knowledge of the mind. Even if we begin practicing a few asanas to keep us healthy when young, spirituality becomes increasingly more important as we become middle-aged adults who seek relief from suffering, or contemplate our own death. For example, while many pre-teen girls take gymnastic classes to develop strength and coordination, 50-year old women have different needs. That’s why we practice “by the body for the mind.”

It has been the life work of B.K.S. Iyengar to restore asana to its rightful place in yogic practice. He has challenged the notion that asana is only a physical preparation for meditation by demonstrating that right action in asana reveals the infinite within. It’s what Patanjali calls ananta samapattibhyam — the assumption of the eternal form when asana is mastered, the “vastness within” that is synonymous with the ability of purusha to abide in his sva-rupa (own form), the goal of yoga:[53]

PYS II.47 Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless, and the ananta [infinite being within] samapattibhyam [is reached].

James Mallinson, “From Tapas to Hard Yoga: The History of the Asanas of Hatha Yoga,” Freer and Sackler Galleries: Yoga and Visual Culture: An Interdisciplinary Symposium, November 22, 2013: <www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl_ZXBMpKXU&list=PLC8Yzyqd-urBN0GhecAovLvE1jh7PrNH-&index=8>

GS II.1 There are 84 hundred thousand asanas described by Shiva. The asanas are as many in number as there are number of species of living creatures in this universe. [Note 1 lakh = 100,000 in Indian numeracy.]

A.G. Mohan (tr.), Yoga Yajnavalkya, Svastha Yoga, 2013. Some Western scholars date Yoga Yajnavalkya much later. It emphasizes pranayama, pratyahara, and dharana, as well as nadis, vayus, and mahabhutas. An apparently different Sage Yajnavalkya (ca. 850 B.C.E.) also authored the oldest Upanisad, the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanisad (13th-6th c. B.C.E.), a discourse about Brahman. [Retrieved from Wikipedia 1-2014.]

[6] The word guru means “the one who removes darkness” of ignorance and false identification with body, mind and ego. See PYS II.5: Avidya [spiritual ignorance] is mistaking the transient for the permanent, the impure for the pure, pain for pleasure and the non-self for the Self (and vice versa).

[7] The spate of English translations of yogic texts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries probably had more to do with the newly acquired press and concurrent British interest in Indian philosophy than any contemporary authorship, as even late yogic texts predated printing by several hundred years. Printing was introduced to India by Christian missionaries in coastal areas starting in the 16th century: Goa (west) 1556; Cochin (south) 1579; Bombay (west) 1674; Tranquebar & Madras (east) 1712 & 1751; Calcutta (northeast) 1780 first newspaper. First English translations include Charles Wilkins: Bhagavad Gita (1785); Nobin Candra Paul: Treatise on Yoga Philosophy (1850); and James Ballantyne: The Aphorisms of the Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, with Illustrative Extracts from the Commentary by Bhoja Raja (1852).

[8] This practitioner speculates that the need for secrecy prevented the corruption and dilution of the art of yoga. Although enthusiastic beginners often want to share what they have learned, it takes at least 10-15 years of practice and teaching to teach others both safely and effectively. It is comparable to the lengthy process a music student must go through to learn the fundamentals of music before applying them as a successful concert artist.

[12] Prashant S. Iyengar, Guru Purnima Address, 7-2-04. Author notes: “If the goal of a ‘professional’ yoga teacher is to expand clientele, it [becomes] a business, not a profession.”

[13] In 2002 our students were unable to find the Hatha Yoga Pradipika for purchase in the U.S.

[14] In 2011 74% of Indians were literate. Yet, one third of the world’s illiterates lived in India. [2005]

Country

Literacy

1500

India

02%

England

10%

1700

England

47%

1800

India

03%

England

52%

US

50%

1881

India

03%

US

80%

1947

India

12%

2003

US

97%

2011

India

74%

[15]Brahmananda Jyotsna I.14 The various standard books on yoga are… for gurus to use as guide-books to regulate their pupil’s training. In hatha yoga… it is absolutely necessary to have a guru, who has passed successfully through the course, who can see clearly through the system, and observe the effects of the various processes and modify them accordingly.

Geeta S. Iyengar, Asana 5-23-96 AM Class: Urdhva Dhanurasana. Author notes: “Guruji did not say, ‘Let me create.’ It came to him when he saw where people were suffering, where they had a problem. He says, ‘If this person complains, then I have to try.’ [Why] do you apply your method? Why don’t you respect what your guru has given you — ‘These are the poses which will bring recovery’? Just to show off that you can do something different? [Can’t you teach] our simple way, just say, ‘Do this, do this’?”

[21] The “junior” teachers at RIMYI — most of whom have taught for over 15 years — are often corrected in the middle of class by Guruji Iyengar or Geetaji. This level of supervision adds immeasurable depth to their teaching.

[24] As we have seen, Patanjali’s definition of yoga is the absence of movement in the consciousness. When that occurs, the yogin grasps that he is purusa, the Self, and “that’s all.” There is no further theological speculation.

[25] Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial theory, India and ‘the mystic East,’ London: Routledge, 1999. Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. P. 135: The tenet of Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta, “All is Brahman (sarvam brahma asti),” has come to dominate both Indian thought in general and Hindu theology in particular due, in part, to Vivekananda’s persuasive advocacy at the end of the nineteenth century and its subsequent adoption by the swaraj [self-rule] independence movement of the twentieth century.

Vivekananda, “The Atman: Brooklyn 2-2-1896 Lecture,” The Yogas and Other Works, NY: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953. 2nd ed. P. 310: However, there is a widespread acceptance of diversity within Hinduism, which includes dualist Hindu temple worship. This reflects what Vivekananda also said: “Most Indians are dualists,” believing man and God are separate.

[26] The metaphoric abode of Shiva is also the target for his rising consort Shakti [HYP III.111]: The seat of Shiva is between the eyebrows, and the mind becomes absorbed there. This condition (in which the mind is thus absorbed) is known as turya, and death has no access there. [HYP IV.48] Siva-sthanam is the Shiva-abode at the bhruvor-madhye (middle eyebrows) [BJ III.24] where the Rudra granthi (at the ajna chakra) is pierced by Shakti at the highest stage [HYP IV.76].

[27] B.K.S. Iyengar, Viparita Karani Q & A 9-29-05, Estes Park. Author transcription: “You cannot conquer death, but you need not suffer ill health, and your life may be prolonged. There is an inner meaning, not a surface meaning, that when life is prolonged, death is delayed.” B.K.S. Iyengar also compared the value of Viparita Karani in facing death to the divine eye that Krishna granted Arjuna [BG XI.8]: “The divine eye made Arjuna less nervous…. [It] strengthen[s] the nerves of the unconscious mind to enable it to remain calm to bear the vision of the light of the soul when it flashes.”

[33] Vivekananda’s objections may have reflected a perception of the body that preexist our current Western viewpoint, the need both to distinguish Vedanta from competing schools and to distinguish between religion and philosophy in the West, and his personal mission to establish a world religion.

Swami Vivekananda did favor psychologically-oriented asana over physically-oriented calisthenics. However, as a renunciant, he was probably influenced by Indian myths that attribute the greed for immortality to unethical and ignorant character flaws, similar to the greed for wealth in the West. There are also Hatha Yoga mudras that the Victorians thought sexually vulgar, such as Vajroli, that contemporary commentators have interpreted less literally, with greater nuance. (See also the subsequent discussion about yama and niyama.) This was very different from the environment in the U.S. where Puritan prohibitions against play had been gradually supplanted by the idea of exercise compatible with Christianity (thus the beginning of the YMCA); where immigrant German gymnastics and Swedish therapeutic exercise had been absorbed into American culture; and where leisure time had increased due to industrialization and urbanization. All these events had resulted in the demand for universal education (including physical education) that did not exist in colonial India — which was primarily provincial and agricultural. Although asana-as-exercise has value, how important could it have been to those working as subsistence agricultural laborers compared to those working in a factory or at a desk?

Secondly, as a non-dual Vedantin, Vivekananda dismissed the competing philosophical schools of Samkhya, Patanjali Yoga, and the Purva (“early”) Mimamsa (who emphasize Vedic ritual to attain merit) — all of whom are dualist, and therefore, reject the Vedantic precept that “All is Brahman.” Because all schools have flourished concurrently, it has always been in the best interest of each school to refute the others. Nevertheless, all Indian schools believe in an eternal moral order (called rta in the Rg Veda) that must be understood to overcome suffering. Ignorance of this reality is what causes the bondage of rebirth and its suffering. Vedanta and Mimamsa depend primarily on the authority of the Vedas to understand the nature of God’s existence, similar to Western religious thought. In contrast, Samkhya and Yoga, without denying Vedic authority, depend on primarily direct perception, as does Western philosophy. For example, Patanjali’s astanga yoga does this by uprooting our impulses, clarifying our thoughts, and refining our actions to prevent future suffering. Nevertheless, despite sectarian differences, the distinction between religion and philosophy is not discrete: Brahmananda’s commentary on the niyamas of hatha yoga quotes the 14th century Sandilya Upanishad, which cites Vedic ritual as well as Vedantic philosophy. His commentary on Ishvara-puja, “Lord-worship,” is illustrated by worship of Vishnu or Shiva. His interpretation of siddhanta-sravana, “sutras of a specific school – learning,” is the study of Vedanta, as opposed to Patanjali Yoga Sutras.]

Thirdly, the early nineteenth century Transcendentalists, influenced by Hinduism, endorsed Universalism, finding truths common to all religions. Universalism, in turn, influenced Vivekananda, who saw Advaita Vedanta as the logical world religion, to the exclusion of other schools. Contemporary Western “spirituality” reflects this Universalist view, and is now considered an alternative to the specific tenets of the Abrahamic faiths.

[35] Vivekananda, “Raja Yoga: The First Steps,” The Yogas and Other Works, NY: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953. 2nd ed. [orig. 1896] P. 587 He cites Shankaracharya’s commentary in the Svetasvatara Upanisad 2.8-9, which is also similar to Bhagavad Gita 5.27-8.

VB I.2 When the veil of [tamas] is completely removed and the mind becomes completely sattvic [luminous], … that mind being influenced by a trace of rajas, the mind (inclines) towards dharma [duty], jnana [knowledge], vairagya [detachment], and aisvarya [sovereignty]. When the last vestige of rajas is entirely removed, the citta rests in itself, realizes the distinction between the buddhi [intellect] and purusa [spirit] and proceeds to dharma-mega, the samadhi of the highest wisdom.

[38] When manas [mind] is stable, it no longer seeks “objects of the senses” which need be presented to buddhi [intelligence]. Manas, buddhi, and ahamkara [ego], are three functions housed within the citta [consciousness].

Inclusion of yama and niyama in the HYP seems to contradict the tantric concept of inherent contentment that comes as a result of the control of prana in the body, as opposed to extrinsic restraint and discipline of yama and niyama. This practitioner finds the aspirational goals of yama and niyama helpful in overcoming obstacles.

[44]Brahmananda Jyotsna I.16. This practitioner believes that “thought, word, and deed” refers to yamas as universal vows that cannot be violated by oneself, by another as an agent of oneself, or even condoned, exactly as in PYS II.34.

[45] Bhishnu Ghosh, Swami Yogananda’s younger brother, although primarily interested in wrestling and physical culture, helped Swami Shivananda design an asana program for his school. Ghosh himself thought yama and niyama were too difficult to follow for the common man. Bikram Choudhury was a student of Ghosh.

[46] Although the British described the Bengalis as weak and passive compared to their muscular Victorian ideal, after the failed 1857 Revolt they recruited only loyal Sikhs for their army, excluding Hindus and Muslims, and discouraged indigenous martial sports in an effort to demilitarize Indian civilians and keep them passive. It did not work. Starting in 1890 the government schools then tried to depoliticize the growing nationalist movement, but it culminated in the bomb-making, political banditry, and assassination of British officials during the 1905-08 Swadeshi movement.

Vivekananda preached abhiti, fearlessness, in yoga, which later was used by Gandhi as a goal for his physical training to achieve non-violent resistance — as opposed to the violent resistance of the militaristic revolutionaries. Gandhi found that the true strength of “soul-force” in ahimsa was indispensable for attaining self-rule. His three campaigns, the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920, the Salt March of 1930, and the Quit India Campaign of 1942, depended on satya-graha — the British colonizers “grasping-the-truth” that they were unwittingly obstructing what was best for both India and Great Britain. These principles were adopted a generation later by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial theory, India and ‘the mystic East,’ 1999. p. 134: Recently, scholars have recast Gandhi’s role in terms of gender politics: Gandhi “inverted colonial presuppositions about Bengali effeminancy, otherworldly spirituality, and the passivity of the ascetic ethics of ahimsa.” His non-violent demonstrations “feminized the manly spirituality of Vedanta” to mobilize women, using the spinning wheel as a symbol of self-rule and passive satya-graha.

[52] B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the YogaSutras of Patanjali, HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1993. P. 150. Commentary on PYS II.46 cites PYS III.1-2: Fixing the consciousness on one point or region is dharana [concentration]. The uninterrupted flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is dhyana [meditation].

[53] PYS I.3 Then the drasta [Seer] dwells in his svarupe [own state].

B.K.S. Iyengar, Depression Q & A 9-29-05, Estes Park. +59:30 Author transcription: “[In Brick Supported Savasana has] his [chest] gone to vastness? Is his chest fully opened? When the chest is opened… the lungs empty for the breath to occupy more space, without asking him to do deep breathing.”

Elise Miller, “B.K.S. Iyengar Talks About the Sutras,” Yoga Journal #57, July-August, 1984. P.31: “[Samadhi] comes to each and every one of us in a split second. Those who are intelligent can catch it.”